Luis
Juarez belted a
two-run homer and Sebastian Valle cracked a solo shot to lead the
Yucatan
Leones to a 4-3 win over the Monterrey Sultanes last Thursday in Merida
to win
Game Seven of the Mexican League's Serie
del Rey championship series for their Spring 2018 season.With their win in front of 14,372 fans at a
nearly sold-out Parque Kukulcan, Yucatan copped their first LMB pennant
since
2006 and fourth since the team's inception in 1954 (the current team is
the third
incarnation of the Leones).Juarez was
named Most Valuable Player of the finals.

The title
set opened
Wednesday, June 20 with a 6-1 Yucatan win at home as Juarez pounded a
pair of
homers, followed one night later by a 3-0 Yucatan shutout with Samayoa
combining with three relievers for the whitewash.The
set shifted to Monterrey for the next
three games, all won by the Sultanes: 9-2 on June 23 as the hosts
posted a
seven-run eighth inning to break a 2-all tie, a 4-3 Monterrey win on
June 24
that featured a Yadir Drake solo homer and 3-1 on June 25 with starter
Jose De
Paula tossing 6.2 frames of one-run ball.The series shifted back to Yucatan for Game Six last Wednesday,
with the
Leones posting a 4-2 triumph behind Everth Cabrera's tiebreaking double
in the
fifth as the home team won all seven games of the finals for the first
time in
Mexican League championship series history.

The
Leones worked their
way to the flag by posting a 40-17 regular season record to top the
Liga before
beating Leon in five games in the South Division semifinals and
Quintana Roo
over seven games in the rain-delayed South finals.It was a typical Yucatan team built around
pitching as the Lions led the 16-team circuit with a 3.95 earned-run
average,
with veterans Jonathan Castellanos (5-3, 2.43) and Jose Samayoa (6-4,
2.57)
leading the mound staff while Yoanner Negrin coming in at 6-1 over
elevens
starts.Negrin, the MXL's Pitcher of the
Year in 2016, won Game Seven.The Leones
were in the middle of the pack offensively, although Juarez (.370 with
13
homers and 54 RBIs) and Jesus "Cacao" Valdez (.364/8/44) both enjoyed
standout campaigns during the 57-game regular season under manager
Roberto
Vizcarra.In his first season in Merida,
Vizcarra earned the second title of his LMB managerial career after
winning
with Quintana Roo in 2015.

Monterrey
reached the Serie del Rey by knocking out both
Monclova and Tijuana in the LMB North semis and finals, respectively.Both Sultanes series wins preceded the
dismissal of manager Dan Firova from the Acereros and skipper Pedro
Mere from
the Toros.For the Fall 2018 campaign,
Monclova will be led by former MLB second baseman Carlos Garcia, who
represented the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1994 All-Star Game; taking
the reins
in TJ will be longtime helmsman Lino Rivera, who led Yucatan to the
2006
pennant and has also been a dugout boss in Monclova, Monterrey,
Veracruz,
Laguna and Campeche.The Sultanes were
led offensively by Ramon Rios (.353), Yadir Drake (.341), Chris
Roberson (.340)
and Ricky Alvarez (.302/13/49) while first-year manager Roberto Kelly's
pitching corps was paced by Liga ERA leader Jorge Reyes (3-0, 1.97 in
nine
starts), Game Seven loser Marco Tovar (6-2, 3.51) and closer Wirfin
Obispo
(3-2, 2.30 and 10 saves).

Players
and coaches for
both teams will barely have enough time to catch their breath until the
Fall
2018 schedule gets underway Tuesday night when all 16 MXL teams swing
into
action for the second 57-game regular season campaign of the year.

SOUTH POUNDS
NORTH, 10-2, IN LMB
ALL-STAR GAME

Parque
Kukulcan in
Merida was also the site of the 86th Mexican League All-Star Game, held
one
night after the conclusion of the hometown Yucatan Leones' 4-3 Serie del Rey Game Seven win over
Monterrey.The Southern Division squad
led by Yucatan manager Roberto Vizcarra laid a 10-2 licking on
Monterrey
skipper Roberto Kelly's LMB North team in a game that received scant
attention
in the media.We'll do our best here at
BBM to give you a reasonable recap.

The South
opened the
scoring with four runs in the bottom of the second inning, highlighted
by an
RBI double from Quintana Roo's Carlos Gastelum and a run-scoring single
by
Oaxaca's Yuniesky Betancourt.The game
was put away for all intent and purposes in the bottom of the fifth entrada, when the South put another six
runs on the board, starting with a bases-loaded walk to Emmanuel Avila
(Mexico
City) and followed by an RBI single from Avila's Diablos Rojos teammate
Ivan
Terrazas and an extra-base hit by yet another Mexico City player,
catcher Hans
Wilson to make the score 10-0.

The North
finally got on
the scoreboard with a pair of runs in the eighth, when Felix Perez
(Aguascalientes) stroked a double to plate Enrique Osorio (Dos Laredos)
while
Perez later scored himself on a Maxwell Leon (Tijuana) single but the Nortenos had dug themselves too deep a
hole by then.A total of 20 pitchers
were trotted out by both teams in the contest (none for more than one
inning),
which still managed to get played in fewer than three hours despite all
the
changes.One-time Florida Marlins
All-Star Henderson Alvarez (Quintana Roo) was the starter for the South
but the
win was credited to Alvarez' Tigres moundmate Dustin Crenshaw.Monclova ace Josh Lowey was tabbed by Kelly
as the North starter but the loss was hung on Tijuana lefty Carlos
Hernandez.Not surprisingly, the South
outhit the North, 14 to 6.

A crowd
of 12,963 was on
hand in Merida for the contest as Terrazas was named All-Star MVP after
going
3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and three more driven in (which
doesn't necessarily
jibe with the above scoring summary but we can only report on what we
can
find).One night later, the Liga held
its annual Home Run Derby and a new competition, the Double Play Derby.Hometown favorite Luis Juarez, who'd already
won the Serie del Rey MVP trophy two
nights earlier for the Leones, was able to beat Monterrey's Ricky
Alvarez in
the Home Run Derby final round by a 10-to-1 margin.Prior to that, Yucatan infielders Everth
Cabrera and Diego Madera combined to win the Double Play Derby final
over
Monterrey keystone combo Ramiro Pena (SS) and Ramon Rios (2B) in a
competition
judged by points on speed and precision.In addition, no less than 13 LMB team mascots took the field
simultaneously to generally cavort around to the delight of youngsters
in the
stands while LMB awards from the 2017 season were handed out in a
postgame
ceremony.

LUIS SOJO NAMED
NEW MANAGER IN
MEXICALI

The
Mexican Pacific
League's Mexicali Aguilas have named former New York Yankees infielder
Luis
Sojo as their manager for the 2018-19 season, taking over the helm from
Pedro
Mere.Sojo last managed in the MexPac
with the Los Mochis Caneros, who he led to a surprising appearance in
the LMP
championship series in 2016-17 before being jettisoned during the
season last
winter.

A native
of Venezuela,
Sojo debuted as an MLB player in 1993 with Toronto and went on to spend
13
seasons in the big leagues, winning one World Series with the Blue Jays
his
first year and four more times with the Yankees between 1996 and 2000,
earning
him the nickname "Lord of the Rings."He was a successful winterball player as well, winning a record
five
batting titles over 21 seasons in the Venezuelan League, mostly with
the Lara
Cardinales, during which he hit .320 lifetime and picking up MVP
trophies in
1989-90 and1993-93.

As a
manager, Sojo led
the Venezuelan National Team at the World Baseball Classic in 2006,
2009 and
2013, taking third place in the WBC in 2009.He also won a Venezuelan League pennant as helmsman of the
Magallanes
Navegantes in 2012-13.Sojo is spending
the summer working in the Yankees minor league system.

It's been
an interesting
year for the Aguilas, who'd brought Mere on board as manager only last
November
after sending former skipper Roberto Vizcarra packing after an
uninspiring
first half of the LMP season less than a year after Vizcarra had led
Mexicali
to the MexPac pennant and Caribbean Series championship.Mere went on to take the Aguilas to the
playoffs and a first-round series win over Mazatlan in six games before
being
swept in the semifinals to eventual champion Culiacan, leading to his
pink
slip.

Ironically,
Vizcarra was
fired in Mexicali three days after Sojo got his walking papers in Los
Mochis
and it's safe to say that the latter will be working with a short leash
under
Mexicali owner Dio Alberto Murillo, who’s proven to be one of those
"What-have-you-done-for-me-lately?" owners so ubiquitous in Mexican
baseball.It's worthy to note the name
of the man Mere replaced in Tijuana as the Mexican League Toros'
manager last
year:Luis Sojo.You
can't make this stuff up.